A urine hat is a long-standing toilet insert used to capture urine for measurement and analysis. Since it provides access to undiluted urine and does not require a change in the normal bathroom routine, it is an ideal platform for on-site urine analysis. Urine hats are widely used in hospitals and other healthcare facilities to monitor urine output.
Essentially, a urine hat is a large plastic measuring cup that sits on the rim of a toilet bowl and collects urine while the patient uses the toilet in a normal fashion. Following a urinary event, a nurse enters the patient's room, documents the level of urine in the hat, empties the contents into the toilet bowl and then flushes the toilet. Since many of the drugs or health conditions experienced during a hospital stay can affect kidney function or require good urine output, this is a simple and effective means of monitoring urine output. Additionally, urine hats are used to collect urine specimens for lab analysis both in the hospital and at home.
Unlike the typical urine sampling procedure employed by laboratories, urine hats capture a clean, complete, undiluted urine sample as part of normal toilet use. As a result, samples are easily obtained with every bathroom visit and data can be continuously acquired without interrupting the patient's normal routine.
Conventionally, however, the basic urine hat is used for little more than collecting a sample and determining the volume of urine output. Moreover, despite the convenience of a urine hat (in comparison to using a simple disposable cup), there is still some inconvenience associated with visually inspecting the contents, determining the volume of urine output, transferring the contents to a laboratory specimen container for further analysis, manually disposing of the contents, and, of course, exposing the laboratory personnel who handle the urine hat to harmful pathogens.
Accordingly, there is a need to develop a urine hat that is safer, more user friendly and more amenable to frequent use.